Finished for REAL!

I have two finishes to report...and I mean they're really finished - binding and all!

The first is the table mat/topper.

The class was on saturday at Quilter's Bazaar and Lorraine taught us how to make bias binding and how to use the Easy Scallop tool by Darlene Zimmerman.

I'm not thrilled with the colour of the binding but I didn't want to buy anything for this quilt.  I knew it was all to me made either with my arm in plaster or shortly after it came off (I got it off 2 days before the class) so I didn't want to waste good fabric by sewing plastered.

The other thing is the french braid table runner.  I finished hand sewing the binding last night.  Woohoo!

I have Lizzy Mae Class #3 tomorrow and #4 later in the month and 2 quilts which REALLY need to be finished before the weather gets too hot so I need to get cracking.

In other news...the lovely Mezzanines Fabric for my Sleepover bag arrived today!

Quilting and Other Bits and Pieces

Well after my success in finishing the chocolate and aqua quilt top on saturday I was on a roll!  Sunday afternoon I basted my table topper using spray baste and DH's help.

Spray baste is OK - I definitely wouldn't use it for anything larger.  It still migrates somewhat while quilting and as a consequence I have a few bulgy areas and I re-basted the borders once I had finished all the ditch stitching.

I love quilting - it's my favourite part of the whole process (well maybe a close second to fabric shopping!).  I think part of the reason is because I'm so close to having a finished quilt to enjoy but mainly it's because I love the feel of the 3 layers in my hands and I really love seeing the extra dimension quilting gives.  It's like icing on a cake I think.  I LOVE icing and a cake is never complete without it.

The ditch stitching (which only occasionally ends up in the ditch thanks to my big fat plaster) and straight line quilting came together quickly - to the point where on Monday I was able to start free-motion quilting the flowers in the wide border.

My ditch stitching looks fabulous in comparison :-/ but it's just a class sample and it's not a gift or anything so I'm not stressing about it and that in itself adds to my enjoyment of the process.  It's not too bad considering I'm in plaster so I am proud of it anyway.

By Tuesday morning my arms ached and I started to think of the lovely toned muscles I'd be getting (bye bye tuckshop arms!!) but poor DS came down with the flu so no quilting yesterday.

He's much better today but still home from school so I doubt I'll get to quilt today either.

My scallop class isn't until 6 Nov so I should get it finished in time.  I'm dreading all the bias binding I'll need to make and sew for this topper.  It's about 46" square which is a bit bigger than I intended.  I wont have enough red for the binding which is a shame but I'll have had a dig through my stash and find something big enough.   No buying for this topper!


Lorraine rang on Monday to postpone Lizzy Mae #3.  Just as well since DS was sick.  It'll be put off for 2 weeks so it'll be on 9 Nov.  What a busy month for quilt classes!

The best bit is my plaster comes off on 4th Nov so I'll be able to sew better.  The only down side to all this is that I haven't been into her shop since before my surgery and I have some shopping to do and gifts to buy which DH isn't able to do for me.  He has been doing a bit of shopping-by-proxy and performed quite well but there are some things I just have to do myself.

No sign of my fabric order from Hawthorne Threads so I'm starting to get a little concerned.  Hurry up already - I want to fondle my fabric!!!

Versatile Blogger Award and a finish

Tarniya generously nominated me and a few other girls from Quilt Block Swaps for this lovely award.

Thank you, Tarniya!  I suppose I am versatile - I moan about the nemesis at least as much as I post about quilting! ;-P

I'd like to nominate Crafty Pug.  She has lots of interesting posts on her blog both crafty and otherwise and she is a very versatile crafter also.  She makes all kinds of things and they're all beautiful...not to mention all the beautiful things she makes for others.  She's a very generous little Pug.

I'll have to email her to make sure she sees this.

I also wanted to share my top for the table mat.  I call it a mat rather than a runner because we have a square dining table so square or round mats look better than long runners.

In the time it took me to fetch the camera the Quality Control Department paid a little visit and his ample bottom is visible in the bottom left corner!

I still need to piece the backing, baste and quilt this before my class on 6 Nov.  The best thing is that it was all made from stash.  I wont even need to buy batting!  Yay!

DaChintzy Code Mystery Clues 3 and 4 (spoiler alert)

On Monday night I was so keen to get on with the mystery that I marked up all my squares for Clue 3.

Clue 3 consisted of 2 steps - making HSTs with the fabric 4 paired with fabrics 2 and 3.

When I woke up this morning I felt so sore and swollen.  The plaster is rubbing against a particularly irritating spot and I'm all out of strong painkillers.  At least DH got me more Diet Coke so I forced myself to proceed, knowing I'd feel better once I got my fingers moving and I did.

Clue 3, steps 4A and 4B:

Since sewing them together was so quick i proceeded directly onto Clue 4. 

This involved pairing up the 2 units above and doing the same thing as before to make little hourglass units. I tried to keep the seam allowance as scant as possible but I have grave concerns for the health of this quilt.  My units are not even close to square and the seam allowances wander somewhat.

Clue 4, Step 5:

I spose it's not bad considering how plastered I am. :-P

I must say I love how it's all coming together so far!  This quilt will be a charity quilt but it'll be hard to give it up.  I've wanted a lovely pink girly lap quilt to snuggle up with for a while and been on the lookout for the perfect pattern or fabric.  Lucky for me (and the recipient of this charity quilt!!), my Block Swap friends have taken care of my "ME" quilt so provided this one doesn't look too sloppy it'll go to a good home.

I have a few tops for charity waiting to be quilted but I'm not sure when this will happen.  It will depend on what happens after my plaster comes off.

Clue 5 comes out in about a week.  That's probably a good thing since I need to finish off my table mat and bind my french braid runner and work more on Lizzy Mae!